• ´How wonderful to be able to pop in at any time up to 11 pm°
• ´How dreadful è another nail in the coffin of local shops°
• ´How welcome and cool in the hot weather°

Martin Galton and Ali Walker give their own individual thoughts on the matter.

The Devil and the Deep Blue Sea
I°ve tried shopping at the Borough Market
I take my car there but can never park it
I°m a modern shopper in a modern era
I°d use it more but Sainsbury°s is nearer
Sainsbury°s I love you and the feeling°s exquisite
It°s the reason for my frequent visits
My temperature soars and my heartbeat quickens
at the sight of your pre-stuffed chickens
And sometimes I think you°re having me on
with special offers on Sauvignon.

Thoughts of Lord Sainsbury are sweet and tender
but I wish I could stick him in my blender
I°m afraid I have a customer complaint
You may be a Lord but you°re not a saint
The African farmers who grow mange tout
are the sort of people you like to screw
You°re the Devil°s sperm and we°ve all been cursed
Sainsbury°s Local è where profit comes first.

Martin Galton (with apologies to poetry)

Sainsbury°s Local è ugh!
´Ugh° is my usual reaction to the word ´supermarket°. I was worried, though, when I saw that a small Sainsbury°s was due to open so close to home. Would its convenience break my resolve not to shop in supermarkets?

Happily, it°s a really unpleasant environment to be in. The shop is dominated by huge supporting pillars for the offices above; they protrude into the aisles, blocking the shelves from the buyers. The shape of the shop is really odd and does not conform with the standard-sized, cheap, display cabinets Sainsbury°s have provided. Units overrun walls and there are funny little bollards to prevent you hurting yourself on protruding edges.

There is no proper delivery entrance for goods: they are delivered through the customers° entrance, and so the aisles are further blocked with trolleys of goods not yet on the shelves. When I visited, the shop was understaffed; the shelves were a mess, the milk shelves under-stocked and covered with spilt milk and no one around to tidy up; a myriad of cashier points and only one in operation, and the inevitable queue.

What is so upsetting about all this is that it was the big supermarkets in the late 1950s and 1960s that destroyed our local shops. Now, 40 years on, big supermarket chains want to put the final boot in by offering local versions of themselves. In 40 years we have come full circle back to home deliveries (we had bread, groceries, meat, fish and greengroceries all delivered to the door when I was a child, as no one had cars) and local shopping.

In contrast, has anybody noticed what°s happening on station concourses? M&S Simply Food! Now they have got a formula that works and does threaten my resolve. Really well-designed shops and layout of produce to take home and cook that night. Since you are at a station and about to get on a train, there is no queuing: 15è20 tills, all staffed all the while.

Well, I°m happy. I can carry on shopping for food at the Borough Market and try and buy as much direct from the producers themselves. I will continue to frequent the local shops for all other bits and pieces and maybe have the odd lapse into M&S at Waterloo on my way back from work in Dorset.

Ali Walker